Flushing Money Down the Toilet? – New Vets Field Rest Rooms Will Cost $300K

Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser and Director of Parks and Recreation Timothy Cronin shared the responsibility of relaying very bad news to Village Council members during Wednesday evening’s Village Council Work Session.

And the bad news was that construction costs for rest room facilities within the Kasschau Memorial Shell, located on Vets Field, are now estimated at $300,100.

As you might expect, there was not one Council member who was happy about receiving that news.

Councilwoman Anne Zusy demanded a line by line breakdown of the proposed construction costs. And Deputy Mayor Keith D. Killion vowed to visit the proposed $300K facility daily in his bathrobe and slippers so he could get his money’s worth.

Cronin also revealed that the $300K construction bid exceeds money set aside for the project by almost $60K.

Council members agreed to sit on the proposal (no pun intended) until such time that Village CFO Dorothy Stikna can advise them how the gap in funding could be resolved.

In the interim, if anyone has ideas on how taxpayers could avoid spending $75K per toilet, please contact Mr. Killion or Ms. Zusy directly.

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That cost should come as no surprise. When you are required by law to use union contractors, the price goes up exponentially. I have a suggestion. It will save about 250,000. The materials are prob no more than 50k. How about using the labor of the RHS shop class students, along with the Bergen Tech students, etc under the supervision of a ‘clerk of the works’ hired to oversee the procees who can be paid a fee of perhaps $10,000. It is simple. I cant wait for the union thugs to have their big inflatable ‘rat’ outside the job site.

This should come as no surpise. If you ask anyone involved in managing the Village they will tell you their costs are at least 50% higher then the private sector when it comes to capital projects because of all the restrictions and requirements they are forced to abide by. (Bid proposals and specifications that run dozens of pages and cover everything short of nuclear war, prevailing union wages, work stoppages, bonding, legal fees, etc….) If you recall, the proposed concession stand for Vets ended up pricing out at over $400,000 (not including the kitchen appliances) when private contractors pegged the cost at $150,000 tops.

It is the world we live in and it should come as no surprise with the concentration of people employed by the government.

stop spending money. breathe deep and just stop politicians. port a potties are fine. the residents need to stand up and make it clear that every expenditure is not just “only a few more $$ on your tax bill”.

This is outrageous. People are all worried sick about the economy and now they are going to spend 300K on bathrooms? And you know it will go to 500K before the project is finished. Why can’t people go in the library bathrooms?